Immigrants’ names as an initial factor of discrimination: A field experiment reveals social Integration difficulties for people with names of a foreign origin

Taking advantage of football’s popularity, a field experiment was conducted on immigrants’ access to social activities. The experiment consisted of posing as football fans applying to take part in a trial training session for an amateur team and sending emails to coaches at over twenty thousand clubs all over Europe. Despite the applications being identical, those sent as if from footballers with local names obtained more affirmative responses than those sent with names of a foreign origin. In the case of Spain, the preference in favour of native players was evident: the difference was of thirteen points, standing above the European average. The results reveal difficulties for social integration that, subsequently, may also lead to barriers relating to labour and economic integration.